A few other things to note:
All season ticket between Bedford and London are 'Any permitted' which means you can use either East Midlands Trains or Thameslink Services. It's also valid to travel into Euston via Bletchley.
Also, a season ticket allows you to make unlimited journeys on the permitted route and also allows you to start/finish short. So, if your son needs to pop to Luton, or even Watford - no problem he can use his season ticket! (It might not work the ticket barriers at intermediate stations but he should be let through manually if it doesn't)
Season tickets are issued as weeklies, monthly or annuals. An annual ticket will represent best value if your son needs to travel every day. Monthly tickets can be bought in odd periods (eg. 1 month 2 days) so it can be advantageous to buy odd period monthly tickets to work around weekends and holidays. Many companies offer interest free season ticket loans and these can be advantageous to allow an Annual season to be bought which represents the best value.
An Annual season ticket is issued as a Gold Card which carries a number of additional benefits, they main ones being:
- 34% off Off Peak travel across much of the south east after 0930 for the card holder and up to 4 other adults. Accompanies children travel at 60% off child prices.
- You can buy another railcard for £10 for himself or a family member (Network, Senior, 16-25 or Two Together)
- You can add the Gold Card discount to an Oyster PAYG card to get cheaper Off Peak travel where Oyster is used (not much use if you have a travelcard season but there are a few places where Oyster is valid outside Travelcard Zones 1-6)
Effectively your son needs a Bedford - London Zones 1-6 Travelcard to get to Canary Wharf. This is valid on any train between Bedford and London and allows unlimited travel within London Zones 1-6 on National Rail, Underground, DLR, Trams and London Buses (there are a few exceptions but that isn't relevant here). This costs:
£135.90 per week
£521.90 a month
£5,436 for an annual
You can get a slightly more expensive version that allows travel from Milton Keynes as well as mentioned above, but given that a 'normal' season ticket allows travel via Bletchley anyway this really isn't worth the extra.
Your son will need a photocard to get a season ticket. Simply take a passport sized photo to the ticket office and they'll make one up for free. It's worth pointing out that they might try and persuade you to buy a season ticket on a smartcard called 'The Key'. I'd advise against this because as far as I know The Key is not accepted on East Midlands Trains.
In the event of a delay of more than 30 minutes on the national rail portion of the journey your son can claim delay repay (you can also claim from Transport for London if delayed on the Underground or DLR). I'd encourage him to do this - rail fares are expensive enough as it is and every little bit to reduce them helps!
I'll leave it to others to advise on the best places to change, the likelihood of getting a seat etc. but point out that East Midlands Trains are generally faster but travel to/from Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham etc so are likely to be very busy between Bedford and London. Thameslink trains are slower but start/terminate at Bedford so no problem getting a seat if getting on at Bedford. Thameslink trains get very busy as you approach London.
Finally, if your son ever stops commuting into London pop back here and ask for the best way of maximising the refund, as sometimes you actually get a larger refund by doing a changeover to a low price annual season rather than refunding a part used season ticket!
I wish your son all the best in his new job.
